Posted by:
Greg Lance – Watkins
Greg_L-W

as a result of ongoing reliable contacts both within Ukip’s heirarchy and in the EU and politics in general – you will remember that back before Christmas we cautioned that Ukip was under investigation for its financial behaviour and seeming abuse of money from the public purse.

We cautioned that a sum well into 6 figures (we thought around £160K) had been used in a manner that could be perceived as criminal for polls and surveys to boost Nigel Farage’s chances of being elected and let us face it Nigel Farage is nothing if not a chancer!

We now gather that some £172,000 was in fact used for polls in contravention of permitted process!

It would seem that our suggestion that Ukip had abused their access to public funds to the tune of between £500K and £1Million was not wrong!

This is by no means the first time that Ukip has used public funds for their own gain nor is it the first time they have claimed that the EU is victimising them by having the timerity to expect them to obey the law!

UKIP-led party in disarray as chief walks out

It’s been a downward spiral at the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, after the European Parliament ordered the party repay misspent EU funds

The UKIP-led Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE), is in disarray after Yasmine Dehaene, the party’s executive director, walked out of the group.

In her parting email Dehaene wrote that she and a colleague — Willem Toutenhoofd — had worked “pro bono” for three months.

Dehaene went on to blame UKIP for failing to meet promises to pay “outstanding urgent bills from the lawyers, the accountant and the rent,” and said that service providers were no longer willing to supply their services to the party.

The email, dated March 31 and seen by POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook, was sent from Dehaene to Roger Helmer, a UKIP member of the European Parliament who is president of the euroskeptic party.

In 2016 the European Parliament found that ADDE had misspent more than half a million euros of EU funding. A significant amount —€172,655 — was found to have been channeled towards opinion polls supporting Nigel Farage’s election to the U.K. parliament in the country’s 2015 general election.

Additional EU funding was withheld from ADDE on the basis of the findings and an associated foundation, the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE) also faced a clawback of funds.

Roger Helmer in a reply email appeared unsure whether the Parliament audit was ongoing or who are the outstanding creditors of ADDE.

ADDE, in a statement on their website, suggested audits of the organization were politically motivated and accused the European Parliament of “an aggressive and hostile attitude.”

Dehaene, who worked as stress management consultant before her role at ADDE, left one final parting gift to UKIP: her out-of-office email message directs all questions to the MEP Roger Helmer.